Understanding the position or health of your club

At the same time as you are collecting information about your club, you can be working with the President to determine the health or status of your club. It is important to determine the status or health of your club as early as possible so you have a true picture of where to start from. There are many areas, importantly financial health, that will need your attention.

To work this out you need to continue to collect information in the following areas:

Financial Information

One of the first areas to determine the clubs status is its financial health. Working with the club Treasurer and President one of the first areas to get an accurate picture of at the start of each year is the club’s financial health. Together with President and Treasure ensure that the following information as possible:

All bank account details, bank statements and bank balances

Club Annual Reports for the last 5 years

Outstanding payments due to people (creditors)

Outstanding amounts owed to the club (debtors)

Past or current Cash flow projections

Past or current budgets and monthly budget variance reports

Profit and Loss

Balance Sheet

List of payments made the previous month

Bank Reconciliations

Getting this information means that pretty quickly you will be able to work out what the financial status of the club is. If it is bad, then you have identified this early and you can put it immediately on the agenda. If the club’s financial position is strong then this is where you build from.

Participation

Sporting clubs exist to offer sporting participation options so it is important to consider how your your club participation is tracking. Not only does it provide you with a good understanding of the sporting side of your club but also focuses you on the year’s upcoming sporting needs. If we have low numbers then what is the committee going to do to increase them. Conversely, if participation numbers appear to be high do we have enough facilities to cater for everybody.

Information that will help you identify the “sporting health” of your club is:

How many players started and finished the year?

If your club has teams, where all teams filled with the required number of players?

What is the current membership numbers?

What are the trends of membership and participation levels over the last 5 years?

How do we recruit our players and coaches?

Are we likely to have enough players for the upcoming year?

Sporting results

Another key indicator of the health of your club is its sporting results. Poor results are normally an indicator of broader underlying issues, such as not enough players or coaches needing more support or development. By reviewing the sports results for the last few seasons, you may get a good insight into areas of challenge or concern.

The areas that are the responsibility of the Secretary are wide and varied and may include:
ensuring the club is run according to its core requirements at all times. These include by its Club...

Check out our additional resources for club Secretaries

Our webinar for club Secretaries

We have developed training webinars specifically for Secretaries. Our "Introduction to being a Secretary" Webinar is a comprehensive 4-part series that will give new Secretaries a solid grounding and experienced Secretaries a welcome refresher.

Starting Wednesday 23rd May 2018
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm

• Attend webinars from the comfort of your own home
• Get a copy of every webinar
• Chat with, and learn from other Secretaries, just like you!

Take one of our online courses

Our "Induction to Committee" online training course is a 14-part video series covering all aspects of leading a club from attracting sponsors to winning grants to club culture and governance, a great support tool for club secretaries.

Over 9 hours of tips, templates, best practices and case studies

• Take the course anytime and anywhere
• Revisit videos when you need to
• Perfect for Secretaries new to the role.